Recently, the variety of so-called digital home appliances is growing. For example, a hard disk recorder, a digital versatile disk (DVD) recorder or a multiple function hard disk recorder and DVD recorder is available for use in recording television programs. Also, in addition to playing ordinary compact disks (CDs), various forms of music playing are now available such as reproducing compressed data recorded in various kinds of memory cards or a hard disk.
Digital home appliances and, more particularly, appliances for playing images or music, are expected to be used by multiple people at the same time. As such, they are often placed in a shared space at home such as a living room, unlike personal computers. A control panel or a controller of a digital home appliance is usually designed with a small number of buttons and a narrow display area. Therefore, items for control are sometimes displayed on a television screen, which is separate from the appliance. One usually watches a television screen at some distance. Therefore, a string of characters in small sizes or movement of a small pointer as are displayed on a PC screen is not suitable for display on a television screen. Accordingly, favorable visual appearance and ease of operation are required in the user interface of digital home appliances using a television screen. Particularly, non-PC users may not necessarily feel comfortable if a method of operation usually employed in PCs is used.
As more and more digital home appliances are built with network functions, they are also expected to operate to retrieve contents from another digital home appliance connected to a home network. As home networks will become more widely available, there will likely be demands for user interface design that does not impair operability even when the digital appliance is connected to a network.